Healthy Smealthy

Why, oh why do healthy muffins have to taste so...so...dang healthy?  I made some today with very little sugar, whole wheat, NO butter, NO milk, and NO oil.  I even replaced one of the eggs with water and flax seed.  Oh, and I used some yogurt to moisten the batter when it seemed too dry.  And how did it taste?  It tasted like too healthy muffins.
On a happier note, I did make two healthy, vegetarian, gf, df recipes recently.  The first one was Make-Ahead Vegetarian Moroccan Stew.  The the second was Spicy Eggplant.
In case that wasn't healthy enough, I also tried Kombucha for the first time.  What is Kombucha?  Kombucha is basically fermented iced tea full of live cultures.  Sounds gross, right?  In college, tons of people I knew drank it.  One teacher described as a bath for your insides.  My friend Kelsey and I swore off drinking it.  My brother's roommate used to brew his own and it smelled strange and looked like a liver growing in a bowl of brown fluid.  Check out the "mother" or the "scoby" used as the starter.

Photo Cred
Anyways, a recent skype conversation with Kelsey revealed that she had caved.  Not only is her own mother making her own kombucha, but Kelsey had actually enjoyed drinking it.  Traitor.  Since it is supposed to have many health benefits including boosting the immune system.  I decided that for Aaron's sake we should give it a whirl.  I went to the natural health store and bought a $4+ bottle of lemon raspberry ginger kombucha (the bottle was only 12oz).  The surprising thing is that it actually tasted kinda good.  Aaron didn't care much for it but he said that he didn't like the ginger flavor.  I thought it tasted great.  It was carbonated and tasted like good soda.  I'm definitely thinking about getting me a scoby.
Now excuse me while I go finish off that bag of popcorn...

Our Scavenger Hunt Date (Or We Love Food)

We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day.  We never have and we never will.  Aaron told me that he was not going to propose on Valentine’s so he proposed on February 11^th.  We celebrate our engagement anniversary. This year we had a hard time making up our minds what to do and whether or not we should do anything at all.  I told Aaron that I was perfectly happy to stay home and go about as usual but he insisted that we should do something despite the fact that February 11, was on a Monday night.

We had the hardest time coming up with something to do or somewhere to eat at.  I suggested we go back to the restaurant we went to the night we got engaged but it was closed on Mondays.  Two other good local restaurants that I was interested in were also closed on Monday night.  We thought of geocaching but it would be cold and dark by the time of our date so that wouldn't work.  In desperation, I turned to blogs for some date night suggestions.  Several suggested putt-putt golf, but again, it would be too cold and dark.  Finally, we read one blog that suggested a Dinner Crawl which is where you go to a different restaurant for each course.  Here was our inspiration!  We decided to not do a very formal dinner crawl but instead to do it more as a scavenger hunt. Our bellies would be our compasses and true north would be our cravings. 

We started at 54 Pizza Express, a local pizza joint, since I had never been there.  We got things started with some yummy mozzarella stuffed bread sticks.  We were too hungry at this point to take any pictures. 

Next we went to a new restaurant in town called Catfish Willies.  The restaurant, servers and the menu all looked redneck.  You can get just about anything deep fried there including pickles

This is me apprehensively awaiting our food. 

We rapidly consumed crab stuffed tilapia smothered in a chili aoli, cajun rice, 2 hush puppies and some coleslaw.  We definitely approved.

Next we were off for some Chinese take-out!

Who is better looking: Buddha or Aaron? 

Aaron basically just inhaled his dumplings.

Dessert course came from Mirko, the new Italian restaurant in town.  They make all their own pastas!  I love the glasses they have there.  Aaron made sure to drink down the water to the optimist/pessimist line. 

We ordered a canoli!  

And then ate it in 2 seconds flat.  We resisted the urge to lick our plate and instead just semi-politely scraped the sauce up with fork.  

Finally, we ended up at the room in the library where Aaron proposed two years ago.  Aaron even let me pick out a book to check out.  What a guy!

  

6 Months

Guess who has been hanging around with us for the past 6 months?

Her favorite things to do include hanging out with her daddy, playing with toys and eating big kid foods

She has learned how to give kisses (!!!), roll to her side and make lots of sounds.  Today, she also started to do this weird panting thing.  

My favorite times with her are bath time and when I hear her playing with her blankets in her crib right after she wakes up from a nap.  

Lemon Pasta with Sausage

So what do you do when there is no food in the house?  Pasta of course!  Here is an original recipe that I've made several times to the delight of both Aaron and myself.  I think it is based off of some real recipes but I can no longer remember what those were.

Lemon Pasta with Sausage

1 lb thin spaghetti (or pasta of your choosing)

3 Italian chicken sausage links (approximately 1/2 a pound)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

20 pitted black olives, chopped

1/4c lemon juice

1/3c white wine

3 T olive oil

Ricotta or Parmesan, optional

1. Cook the spaghetti according to package directions and return to pan.
2. Using scissors, cut the sausage links into bite sized pieces and fry in a small skillet over medium heat. When the sausage is almost cooked all the way through, add the garlic cloves and continue cooking until chicken is no longer pink.
3. Drizzle the pasta with lemon juice, olive oil, and white wine. Stir in the olives and sausage/garlic mixture. Stir until pasta is evenly coated. Add extra wine or lemon juice if needed.
4. Serve immediately topped with your choice of Parmesan or Ricotta.

Warning:  These amounts are just approximations.  No real measuring devices were used in the making of this pasta.  

I meant to take a picture before we ate.  I suppose this nearly empty pot gives you an idea of just how yummy this here pasta is.

The Things Kids Say

I can't wait for Kira to learn how to talk mainly so I can enjoy all the hilarious things that she says.  Until then, I will just have to enjoy the funny things that other people's kids say.  Here are a few recent ones.

Me: Do you need any help putting on your sock and shoes?
Little Girl: No...except I can't figure out which sock goes on which foot.

Little boy: I'm so glad I'm not a girl and I don't have to have babies.  It must really, really hurt when they come out of your tummy.
Little girl:  No, they don't come out of your tummy.
Little boy: Where do they come out then?
Little girl:  I'm not going to tell you.
Little boy:  Please tell me!  I really want to know!
Little girl: No.
Little boy: Mommy, where do babies come out from?
Mom: I'll tell you later.

Little boy while playing outside: A cold booger just came out of my nose.  I hate it when cold boogers come out of my nose.  *mumbles something I can't understand* People will laugh at me.

Before Church

Ok, so what do you do when you get all ready for church and discover that you don't have to leave for 10 more minutes?  Sometimes in our house we use the time to make some music, get to church early, or each do our own thing.  However, the other week, we decided to take some pictures.  And because we're so funny, they turned out like this. 

My favorite part is how Baby Girl looks the same in just about every picture.  Even though she is the master tongue-sticker-outer in our house, she is behaving in every picture.  I know, I know, you just wish your familiy was this much fun.